How Much Does Tri Tip Cost in California?
California average advertised sale price · USDA Southwest region · week of July 9, 2026
$7.54/lb
Store-weighted advertised (sale) price for tri tip roast across California-area supermarkets this week, the on-ad deal price, not the everyday sticker. Everyday shelf prices run higher, often into the low-double-digits per pound at premium or urban stores. The national advertised average runs about $7.77. What you actually pay turns on region, grade, your store, and whether it’s on feature.
Read the number right
This is the advertised sale price, what supermarkets put on ad that week, not the everyday shelf price. Everyday, off-sale tri tip runs meaningfully higher, often close to double at premium and urban stores, and prices vary by region, chain, and grade. Around grilling season you’ll see California tri tip advertised near this range, while full price at a store like Ralphs or Whole Foods can sit in the low-double-digits per pound. Use it as the deal to watch for, not the sticker you’ll always see.
Tri tip shows up at three quality tiers in the weekly ads. Here’s the current California spread, cheapest to priciest, with the national average for context:
Store brand
$8.75/lb
USDA Choice
$5.77/lb
Angus / Branded
$6.99/lb
National average
$7.77/lb
“Store brand” is ungraded supermarket beef, “Choice” is the standard graded tier most stores feature, and “Branded” covers Certified Angus and similar programs. USDA Prime tri tip is almost never advertised, so it has no line here, but Costco often carries it in bulk (more on that below).
A quick rule of thumb, and remember these are sale prices: in California, Choice tri tip advertised around this week’s Choice figure above is a solid deal, and well under it is a steal. Everyday, off-sale prices run higher, commonly into the low-double-digits per pound, and above that on ad usually means Prime or a branded Angus program. Those are whole-roast figures, too. Cut into steaks, Choice runs a little higher, about $5.77/lb on ad this week.
Deal watch · week of July 9, 2026
The lowest advertised tri tip price in California this week is $5.77/lb for Choice, with graded Choice as low as $5.77/lb. In California, value chains like WinCo, Stater Bros, Vons, and Smart & Final tend to run tri tip features, especially heading into grilling-season weekends. One honest caveat: USDA pools these prices from store ads but never names the retailer, so we can show you the price, not the chain. And because grocery ad weeks vary, many flip on Wednesday, some Thursday or Friday, and this is a once-a-week snapshot, a given sale may already have changed. Check the store’s current ad before you make the drive.
The National Trend, 2018 to 2025
Zoom out from this week and the longer story is a steady climb. Each point is the monthly national average of the USDA’s weekly advertised price. The chart opens on the last two years; tap Since 2018 to see the full run, tri tip rising from about $5.26 a pound in 2019 to about $7.69 in 2025, up roughly 46% as the cut went from West Coast secret to national staple.
Monthly national average of weekly advertised price, USD/lb, through September 2025. Source: USDA AMS National Retail Report, Beef.
Where to Actually Buy It
Price is only half the question. Where you buy matters as much as when, and our first recommendation is your local butcher. A good counter will hand-cut to the thickness you want, leave the fat cap on if you ask, tell you where the beef came from, and steer you to the best value that week. You support a local business instead of a national chain, and you usually walk out with a better piece of meat. In California, buying direct from a Central Coast ranch gets you the same traceability with even fresher beef.
Warehouse clubs are the dependable backup, and Costco is the one shoppers ask about most. It carries USDA Choice whole tri tip and, unlike most supermarkets, often stocks Prime, sold whole or in bulk multi-packs, which makes the Prime in particular a strong value for the grade. Costco doesn’t report to the USDA and its club prices swing by warehouse and region, so check your local store rather than trust a fixed number. This week’s California prices above are the benchmark to measure any warehouse deal against.
Ask about the fat cap
Tri tip sells either trimmed or with the fat cap left on, and it changes what you pay. You buy by total weight, so a fat-cap-on roast costs a little more up front for weight you’ll trim off. But that cap bastes the meat as it cooks and shields it from drying out, so most pitmasters want it left on. Ask your butcher to leave at least a quarter inch, and factor that weight in when you compare a trimmed cut’s per-pound price against one with the cap.
Hunting for a specific spot? The tri tip locator maps out where to find it across California, from butcher counters to ranch-direct.
How We Built This
Every week the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service publishes the National Retail Report for Beef, which records the advertised prices supermarkets feature that week. Tri tip is a standing line item, broken out by region and quality grade. For the current California figures we take the Southwest-region rows (AZ, CA, NV, UT) and store-weight them by grade. For the long-run trend we pulled the national weighted-average price from every weekly report since 2018-12-07: 351 readings in all.
In September 2024 USDA moved the report to its newer MARS platform and split tri tip into roast and steak lines, each regular or value grade. From that point our series is the store-weighted average of those conventional, fresh lines. It lines up cleanly with the older single-line series at the handoff, with only a few cents between the last week of the old format and the first week of the new, so the trend stays consistent across the format change.
Read this honestly
These are advertised feature prices at major retailers, not everyday shelf prices, so sale weeks run below what you might pay on a random Tuesday. USDA pools ads from many retailers and reports the average without naming any store, so we report what tri tip costs, not which chain has the lowest sticker. The California snapshot uses USDA’s Southwest region, the finest geography it publishes, so it spans a few neighboring states, not California alone. The trend chart is a separate, broader national series.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does tri tip cost per pound in California?
As of the week of July 9, 2026, USDA’s Southwest region puts tri tip roast around $5.77/lb for Choice, about $8.75 for store-brand, and about $6.99 for branded Angus, a store-weighted average near $7.54. The national average is about $7.77. These are advertised sale prices, so everyday shelf prices run higher, often into the low-double-digits per pound, and vary by region, store, and grade.
Is tri tip getting more expensive?
Yes. Nationally the advertised average rose from about $5.26 a pound in 2019, the first full year of data, to about $7.69 in 2025, up roughly 46%. Rising popularity and record beef prices both played a part.
When is tri tip cheapest?
Around grilling season. Retailers run the most ad space on tri tip heading into Memorial Day, Father’s Day, and the Fourth of July, which is when feature prices fall hardest. Buy on feature weeks, not at everyday price.
Where is the best place to buy tri tip?
We recommend a local butcher first: a custom cut and trim, real provenance, and you support a local business instead of a national chain. Warehouse clubs like Costco are a reliable backup and often carry Prime tri tip in bulk multi-packs. In California you can also buy direct from Central Coast ranches for the freshest beef.
How much is tri tip at Costco?
Costco doesn’t report to the USDA and its club prices vary by warehouse and region, so there’s no single published figure. What’s consistent: it carries USDA Choice whole tri tip and, unlike most supermarkets, often stocks Prime, usually sold whole or in bulk multi-packs. For a benchmark, California Choice tri tip runs about $5.77/lb in the USDA data above. Check your local warehouse for its current club price.
What is a good price for tri tip?
It depends on sale versus everyday. Use the live California figures above as your benchmark: at or below this week’s advertised Choice price is a solid deal, and well under it is a steal. Everyday, off-sale prices run higher, commonly into the low-double-digits per pound, with Prime or branded Angus higher still. Watch grilling-season feature weeks for the lowest prices.
Is tri tip expensive compared to other cuts?
No. Tri tip is a value cut, far cheaper per pound than ribeye or filet but with big, beefy flavor, which is why it’s sometimes called a poor man’s ribeye. See how it stacks up in tri tip vs brisket and tri tip vs picanha.
Source
Data Source
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. National Retail Report: Beef (Weekly Retail Beef Feature Activity). Washington, DC: USDA AMS Livestock, Poultry, and Grain Market News.
Retrieved June 19, 2026. Trend series compiled from the historical archive (2018 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025); California figures from the current weekly report. See the USDA AMS retail reports hub for the program.
Knowing the price is half of it. Learn what you’re buying in the guide to the cut, then put it to work with the recipe collection.